


Thunder Inhalation

by kurgaya



Series: Wayfinder [2]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, First Meetings, Gen, Introspection, Nakamaship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-23
Updated: 2015-08-23
Packaged: 2018-04-16 20:16:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4638780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kurgaya/pseuds/kurgaya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Swordsman would have been a title held with pride. First mate, though only ever uttered in low tones and wondering, awed whispers across the decking of their ship, would have been the same, but though Zoro may be the both first mate and the swordsman in spirit, neither are the title that Luffy bestow.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thunder Inhalation

**Author's Note:**

> Very short. Merely a take on their first meeting and a look into Zoro's thoughts :)
> 
> Please enjoy!

 

Goal-driven and bound in a purpose of age-old wishes and dying regrets as he is, it has never been Zoro’s intention to step up as the navigator in any pirate crew – including Strawhat Luffy’s. In fact, regardless of his initial reluctance to tether himself to the ways of such a spunky kid ( _the son of a devil_ , as he rightly calls the hat-wearing, smile-wielding, infinity-bound captain, whose _ways and means_ can only compare to the ocean itself, impulsive storms and hurricanes and calm, beautiful days abound) forgoing his life as a hunter and becoming the very prey he hunts isn’t exactly on Zoro’s agenda either. Weeks of hunger and sweltering tempers created a to-do list which begins with – in bold letters and wonky capitalisation – **SURVIVE** , a command closely followed by, _destroy Captain Morgan_ and then, almost as a postscript, _forget this ever happened_. To Zoro, it is all that he needs to see through the day, but he can only suppose that with strategising abilities as practical as his own, Monkey D. Luffy’s intervening persuasion should have come as no surprise.

 _Swordsman_ would have been a title held with pride. _First mate_ , though only ever uttered in low tones and wondering, awed whispers across the decking of their ship, would have been the same – and it _is_ , his nakama would argue, if any ever dared to speak them aloud – but though Zoro may be the first mate and the swordsman in spirit, neither are the title that Luffy bestow.

“Which way to the next island?” the captain asks as they prepare to depart as a crew – the first time, but certainly not the last – swinging the oar around as if it has any ability to navigate them through the sea, across the lands of adventure and time to carry them home into a world made of stars. Upon waiting for a whole _two seconds_ for his newest – and only – crewmate to answer, and thus not receiving any form of reply, Luffy pokes the oar into Zoro’s chest, jabbing it occasionally to emphasise his next question:

“Hey, hey, Zoro, are you listening?”

“I’m listening captain,” he replies, scarcely holding back a rather vicious bite of, _what are you, five?_

He is not a _nice guy_ , preying upon the foolish and naïve, those that deserve it and those that don’t, collecting up bounties like he has any right to be wrecking people’s lives and carving his way through the world with nothing but a promise and his pride. (And where had his pride gone, amidst this fated day?) Even when awake, Zoro seems to inhabit a world entirely of his own, a world of stolen moments and time bargained away. He holds himself as if he expects every movement to hurt, as if it does, agony confining him to defence, but his eyes are alert where his body is still, tracking the air for blades and knives.

He walks in a world where even his shadow is on the hunt. Wounds athwart him – not on his back, no, but elsewhere, in his skin, in his eyes, and on his tongue; he growls blistering words of defence, warning wicked souls away.

He cracks open an eye just in time to catch his captain’s brilliant smile, a smile of sunshine and honey and all-kinds of gleeful things melded into gold, and perhaps in the world of hunter and prey in which Zoro has grown, perhaps that is what makes all of the difference.

Zoro watches his captain and wonders what he thinks.

He wonders if Luffy realises that he’s let an animal onto his ship.

“Which way?” Luffy continues, prodding the oar under the other’s ribcage (too thin, Zoro is now, sickly white, cold, and _thin_ , although the captain will argue to have abandoned the oar due only to Zoro’s subsequent glare, rather than any concern about his first mate’s health).

Uncaring for the logistics of their journey, Zoro simply waves his hand over his head, letting his eyes fall shut to the direction of Fate’s intention. “That way.”

There is a slight, hesitating pause from the captain – but one that Zoro will never hear again.

“…That’s a grocery market,” Luffy says, _ooooh_ ing over the display of apples and oranges.

This is news to Zoro, but he replies with a firm, _yeah_ , anyway, as if he had known where he was pointing all along.

The captain cheers wildly. “AWESOME,” he roars, likely holding the oar up over his head, but Zoro dares not look to see. “LET’S GO THAT WAY.”

And then Luffy slaps Zoro’s shoulder (thankfully _not_ with the oar) and declares as he leaps off the boat, his voice ringing out in the no-nonsense, _I-will-take-on-the-world_ tone that Zoro will soon come to associate with the future King, “ _Man_ , you’re gonna be a _great_ navigator.”

By the time his newly bestowed role registers with the half-slumbering swordsman, only dust and wood is left to hear Zoro’s mumbled tone of confusion.

And by that point, it is too late.

(But it is always too late to change his captain’s mind).

Learning how to navigate the seas is a difficult task, but Zoro excels at it – eventually. With nobody else around to respond to the pull of the captain’s heart – his mind alight and his soul ever burning for the sunset blazing behind Raftel’s horizon – Zoro has no choice but to learn, so he takes the challenge in stride. There is little point in arguing over the matter – or any matter, he quickly learns, for Luffy is Luffy and that’s all there is to it – and he doesn’t particularly mind. The opportunities to train his swordsmanship and refine his skills are plentiful, and he _may as well_ keep track of the changing seas as their boat drifts on. He has no books to learn his skill, and even if he did, his literacy ability leaves much to be desired, but he makes do with instincts and observation, and no small amount of trial and error.

Luffy seems not to mind. Mishaps are frequent, islands are uncharted and adventures are missed, and sometimes uncountable days pass between the shouts of _land ahoy!_ Zoro learns to stock food aplenty for their days at sea, pressed to cater for double the mouths and tenth-fold the appetite, and they seem to lose money faster than daylight, coins slipping from the widening holes in their pockets like the amber rays of dusk tumbling into night.

He returns to bounty hunting when they’re desperate. Luffy says little on the matter bar a pout and his silence, but the quiet is telling enough. Zoro is glad for the acceptance just as it bothers him – a lone wolf by nature, it has been a long time since _permission_ was needed to act. He has a captain to feed, and he gives Luffy’s hunger more consideration than he has ever given his own, but something like hurt in his captain’s eyes stays his hand from targeting the higher bounties – the pirate bounties.

They get by on the wealth and misfortune of bandits. Luffy’s smile is worth the added budgeting, and Zoro begins to wonder, sailing through the open seas with nothing but a captain at his back and his swords at his side, if the _first mate_ title is fitting.

Luffy still insists of calling him _the navigator_ though. And when the crew grows steadily with the approach of the Grand Line, a looming possibility of impossibility guiding the helm and steering the Going Merry on, there is nothing they can do but have faith in Zoro’s ability to follow the captain’s eyes. Doubt with every new crewmember is unavoidable (“ _He’s_ the navigator? He can’t even find his own bed!”) and while there is truth in their exclamations, Zoro knows they are wrong to question the word of the captain even as he takes their words to heart.

They are right – at first, and more than they could ever know, but as if he knows the first mate’s concerns (unvoiced, though evident in Zoro’s dark, tired eyes and studious bedhead hairdo, forehead smeared with text that he can only begin to unravel), Luffy simply grins at every squawk of disbelief.

“Zoro’s the navigator,” he says, smiling that unbelievable smile from beneath his hat. “He knows the way.”

Zoro definitely _doesn’t_ know the way, but eventually he knows the winds, the currents, and the crackle of lightning across his skin, he breathes in time with the lull of the waves and snores with the rumble of thunder in the sky, and his dreams are coloured by sunset and rain, blues and oranges and purples and pinks.

He doesn’t know _the way_ , but he knows his captain, and why would he navigate anything else?

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a comment as you go~


End file.
